Florence statue could 'collapse' due to tunnelling vibrations

(ANSA) - Florence, March 3 - Michelangelo's David could be
toppled by reverberations from work on a new Italian high-speed
train line, an expert has warned.

The famous statue, said underground architect Fernando De
Simone, could "collapse" because of tremors emanating from
tunnel excavation.

"In Florence, tunnels will pass about 600 meters from
Michelangelo's statue of David, the ankles of which, it is well
known, are riddled with micro-fissures.
"If the statue is not move before digging begins, it will
collapse," he claimed.

De Simone is an expert in underground construction from
Padua who has been pushing the Region of Tuscany and the City of
Florence to move the statue of David from its current location
at the Galleria dell'Accademia to an underground museum he says
should be built.
"There is a high probability of (the statue's) collapse," De
Simone explained.
"The risk of collapse or slippage in the marble of the
statue's lower joints will be very high if the resonance caused
by excavation machinery for the high-speed train tunnel, as well
as the vibrations of passing trains thereafter, are added to
existing vibrations caused by groups of 60 visitors at a
time...and oscillations generated by automobile traffic in
surrounding zones".

De Simone added "it would be preferable to move the statue
to a purpose-built museum, which would also protect it in case
of an earthquake, and would allow visitors to see it from
multiple points of view: ascending, descending, and from a
spiral perspective, as Michelangelo wished and as (art critic
and historian) Carlo Ludovico Raggianti amply demonstrated".

Michelangelo's masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture depicts
the Biblical hero David.
The marble male nude stands just over five meters tall, and
was created between 1501 and 1504.
Originally positioned in a public square outside the Palazzo
della Signoria, it was moved to the Accademia Gallery in 1873,
and a replica placed in the square.